Finally, an update.

Things of Joy

Attack of the Yeti Hand is officially listed on imdb.com. This also means that I, Karyn Ben Singer, and officially listed on imdb.com. This ALSO means that I have accomplished something on my Life List of Things to Accomplish. The last time I accomplished something on this list was “get my work mentioned in Entertainment Weekly” which happened with the Contemptuous Sardonic Felicity Watchers Society. Actually, “Make a Damn Movie” is on the list, so technically THAT is the most recent.

In regard to making movies, there's a rant I go on every so often, usually preceded by someone making asinine comments about someone else's work. And the commenter usually has no experience in doing the work they feel the need to criticize. This is one downside to the internet. Everyone can voice their opinion and feel justified in their remarks, even if they're full of crap. So, let me clear some things up. And my internet opinion is valid because this is my blog and I am the boss of it.

It takes a lot of work to make a movie. Even a bad one. Even if you're sitting in a theater and cursing the eleven dollars you just spent on your ticket, plus the other twelve you spend on popcorn, Coke, and Jujubees. Even then, a team of people spent hours, days, weeks and month (sometimes, years) putting together the flicking image you're ready to write off as drivel. And some of it rightfully is crap. Sure.

Look, I'm not in love with Transformers. Not even if you put Megan Fox in it. (Though, I do have a creepy cougar crush on Shia, but who doesn't?) I think it started out as one movie and them became an entirely different movie that forgot the first part of the movie ever existed. I mean, whatever happened to the hot Australian girl and Tom Lenk? No one knows.

But, people are proud of the work they put into that movie. And they should be. It made a frillion dollars. Also, don't think I disliked the movie because I'm pretentious and hate Michael Bay. Far from it. I CRY LIKE A BABY during Armageddon. I won't lie.

Another annoyance I have is harsh critical opinions of actor's performances from PEOPLE WHO DON'T ACT. Lesson number one about acting: ACTING IS HARD WORK. It's not just standing in front of a camera and making things up. Unless you're in a Christopher Guest movie. Or the Blair Witch Project. And I suddenly now wish Christopher Guest would do a Blair Witch Project type project.

If you are watching the television or movie screen and the person on it seems like they are just talking,like a regular person, to someone else, THEY ARE A GOOD ACTOR. Granted, there are a ton of nuances and methods and interpretations that we, as the movie-going public, can agree or disagree over. But I don't think most of said public truly realizes how much an actor works just to appear natural.

Film acting is, to me, a much more difficult craft than stage acting. Actors generally aren't working with the arc of the story behind them. They're shooting out of sequence, doing the same scene over and over, while trying to maintain the freshness of the lines. They're breaking for lunch,then coming back and jumping right into a scene about their dead grandmother or first love or ninja assassins. On top of the character work and lines, they have to remember where they're supposed to stand, what their range of motion (and emotion) is, and pretend that there isn't a camera and thirty-five people standing around them.

If you have any interest in the filmmaking process, even if you're just an avid fan, I seriously suggest trying to work as an extra for at least one day. Or try to visit a film set. Because then you will see, first hand, just how much labor goes into even the most mediocre projects.

And, maybe a project is mediocre because it's someone's early work. Maybe they're looking to learn and grow. Maybe they know it's mediocre. But maybe they're proud of the milestone, the getting it done. That alone, that determination and drive and desire to simply get it done, puts them ahead of all the critical dreamers who can't seem to get off their butts.

So, this, I suppose is actually a response to anyone who might be critical of my work. Because, after all, I am in show business and, therefore, make must everything about me. But I know where I stand. I know what I've done.

And I know what I'm going to do.